


I Wasn't Looking for the Next Best Thing

by wookieefucker



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Past Crowley (Supernatural)/Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24258916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wookieefucker/pseuds/wookieefucker
Summary: “Cas, will you saddle up to be my riding partner for life?” Dean snickered a little bit before breathing deeply and continuing. “Will you be the yee to my haw?” He burst out a deep laugh at that before reigning himself in and wiping away a tear.Cas stared at him for a moment, before responding seriously, “We-haw.”Sam is tired of his brother not trusting him. Dean thinks maybe his family should butt out of his life a little bit. The conclusion is absolutely ridiculous.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester
Comments: 8
Kudos: 106
Collections: ProfoundBond Prompt Collection





	I Wasn't Looking for the Next Best Thing

**Author's Note:**

> I was just posting my bullshit in the Profound Bond discord server when [oriana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oriana1990) said I should actually write it. I wouldn't have posted it without their push, either. Thanks!

“I don’t know, he just asked me to call you,” Sam was saying into the phone. Dean gave him a nod and a thumbs up, prompting Sam to roll his eyes. He brushed a hand through his hair. “No, mom, he won’t say. Just that he and Cas have some important news and that we all need to be together. They do say it’s nothing bad.” Sam glanced at Dean. “I don’t see why not. Yeah, okay. Love you too, mom. Bye.”

“Well?”

“She’s on her way. Bobby is coming too.”

“Awesome.”

“Dean, what the hell is this?” Sam asked, but Dean ignored him. Sam followed him into the kitchen where Cas was already sitting at the table. He gave Dean a soft smile, and before Sam could open his mouth Dean shoved a hand over it.

“Nope. Cas ain’t telling either. Wait’ll mom and Bobby get here.”

Sam pushed Dean’s hand off his mouth with a grimace. “Gross, Dean. I don’t even know where your hand has been. You’re such a jerk.”

“Whatever, bitch.” Dean poked and prodded Cas until he was following him out of the room, and Sam watched them with one eyebrow raised. He was sure his face was probably pinched up, what Dean referred to as his bitch face, but he couldn’t figure out what was going on. “We’re going to watch tv until they get here!” Dean called over his shoulder, and Sam rolled his eyes.

Sam couldn’t tell you what was going through Dean’s head sometimes. When they were hunting it was like the two of them were on the same wavelength, sharing a brain. They could anticipate the others movements and very rarely were they out of sync. Cas was a little harder to anticipate, but years of fighting together as well as the fact that Castiel was a highly skilled warrior to begin with meant that they could still hunt well together. But to really know him?

Dean said often that Cas was like an open book. That may have been true for Dean, but Sam figured that Cas had been right long ago when he’d said that he and Dean had a more profound bond. Sure, Sam counted Cas as a friend, but it was nothing compared to what Dean had with him. Which was why he was so sure that he was right. They were definitely doing it,

Mary and Bobby got in late that night, and Sam set them up in the room farthest away from his. Sure, he was happy for his mom. That didn’t include wanting to hear her and an alternate version of his surrogate father doing it at one in the morning. Gross. When Dean verbalized the same thing Sam was thinking though, he played it as if Dean were the one being immature. Little brothers’ prerogative, and all.

In the morning Sam was surprised to be the first one up. Usually as he got up to go on a run he’d find Cas in the kitchen staring forlornly at a PB & J, or in the library reading any number of things. The weirdest one by far had been one of Dean’s cartoon porn comics. Cas had calmly informed him that it was called hentai, causing Sam to leave without his water bottle or hair tie. He never asked again.

The air was cool and pleasant this early, and watching the sun rise as he ran was something that Sam knew he’d never get enough of. There was something so pure about the sky like this. It felt untaintable, and for Sam that feeling was everything he’d ever wanted. He stopped at the crest of a hill that he often used as his midway point and stretched for several minutes, listening to birdsong and the sounds of animals coming to life for the day. A squirrel chittered to itself as it ran along the branch over his head and Sam took a drink of water before turning around to head home.

As he walked down the hall to the kitchen, towel slung around his neck, Sam could hear Dean whistling to himself. He heard noises down the hall that sounded as if Mary and Bobby were getting moving for the day, but still no sign of Cas.

“Hey,” Dean greeted as he flipped a pancake. Sam nodded, taking a drink of water.

“Thought you were gone. Didn’t see the car in the garage.”

“Nah, Cas had to run to town. I got started on breakfast.” Sam stared incredulously. Dean frowned at him. “What?”

“You let Cas drive Baby?”

“Yeah? Dude’s been driving for a while now, Sammy.” He tipped the pancake out of the skillet, sliding it neatly onto a towering stack, and put the skillet back down. He started cracking eggs into a bowl next, whisking them while Sam stared.

“You barely let me drive that car, Dean.”

“There a question in there somewhere?” God, his brother could be an ass.

“Look, you know I love you no matter what, right Dean?”

Dean poured the bowl of beaten eggs into the skillet, giving it a swirl and turning down the heat. He looked at Sam, one eyebrow raised. “Dude, I know. What’s that got to do with Cas driving?”

Sam rolled his eyes and left, not bothering. He’d tried to have this conversation with Dean for years, and as the years went on Dean kept refusing to acknowledge it. Bobby, their Bobby, original Bobby, had even flat out said it when they were accusing Cas of double-crossing them back before the leviathan debacle. 

_“I know you’re in love with that angel, boy,” Bobby began, and Dean sputtered._

_“I don’t swing that way.” There was an uncomfortable silence. Sam coughed into his hand._

_“Look,” Bobby tried again. “All I’m saying is it seems highly suspicious, his behavior. And if you weren’t so close with him you’d see it too.”_

Dean just wouldn’t come clean. It was infuriating, honestly. Cas looked at Dean like he hung the moon, and the guy was an _angel._ Even Mary had asked him about it, after Cas had patched him up after their first encounter with the British Men of Letters.

_“So, Dean.” Mary said. Sam waited. Mary sighed. “He’s uh, different than I expected.” Sam waited some more. “That angel, too. Never really saw men allowed to be um, close, like that. Not back before.” There was another long pause. “That’s good, though? That they have each other.” Sam took pity on Mary then. She was clearly trying._

_“Yeah, they are close. Not sure really how close his thing with Cas is, though. Dean’s a real private person, even from me, and he raised me.” Mary’s eyes had started swimming with tears then, and Sam quickly changed the subject._

In all honesty, Sam was tired of feeling like he wasn’t good enough to know about Dean’s relationships. What did Dean think, that he’d be rude about it? It was Cas, who was one of Sam’s closest friends. And if it was the guy thing, Sam went to school in California. _Honestly. I’ve seen guys be ‘more than friends’ before, Dean,_ Sam argued mentally. 

Sam bumped into Bobby on his way to the shower, nodding at each other as they walked past. The door was open, and Sam could see Mary looking at her phone, smiling as she typed. She glanced up, her smile growing wider as she saw him looming in the doorway, and Sam felt his heart clench.

“Hey Sam. Morning,” she greeted. She stood up, and Sam shook his head.

“I’ve been running,” he laughed, “I probably smell really bad.”

Mary sat back down, and her phone buzzed again. “Cas asked if we need anything else before he comes back from town,” she said, looking down as she typed her response. Sam shook his head again, and Mary nodded, tapping out another reply and hitting send.

“Dean’s making breakfast,” Sam passed on, and Mary’s face brightened. 

“You better shower before I eat it all then,” she laughed, patting him on the arm as she stepped past him through the door frame.

Despite what she had said, they all waited for Sam to finish his shower to start breakfast. Dean had set it all up at the map table, which was a little weird, but Sam shrugged and joined everyone. 

As they were eating, conversation was pretty normal. Mary and Bobby talked about the hunts they’d been on, and the other folks they’d run into while hunting. Dean was uncharacteristically quiet. Eventually Mary noticed, asking what was wrong, and Dean stood up, producing the smallest cowboy hat Sam had ever seen in his life from his pocket.

Dean knelt in front of Cas, opening the hat to reveal it was a box with a ring inside. Sam thought his heart was going to explode, it was racing so fast. Was this really happening? 

“Cas, will you saddle up to be my riding partner for life?” Dean snickered a little bit before breathing deeply and continuing. “Will you be the yee to my haw?” He burst out a deep laugh at that before reigning himself in and wiping away a tear.

Cas stared at him for a moment, before responding seriously, “We-haw.”

At that Dean burst out laughing and sunk down, both knees on the floor now. His head was against Cas’ knee, and Sam was extremely confused. He looked at Mary first, who looked puzzled, and Bobby who had decided to ignore the shenanigans and keep eating. Sam glanced back over at Cas who was giggling too, and then Dean looked up at him, pulling him down into a kiss. Sam heard a clatter of silverware and realized he wasn’t the only one to drop his. Dean pulled back then, and Sam watched a weird series of expressions cross his brother’s face before he stood up and, well, bolted was the only word to use.

Sam seemed the only one able to find his voice, and cleared his throat. “What was that?”

Castiel was sitting in his chair. He hadn’t moved except to bring his fingers up to touch his lips. “Dean and I were growing tired of you all insinuating that we were in a relationship. He- _we_ saw the ring box at the pawn shop last Thursday and thought it would be funny to show you all how ridiculous you were being. I certainly wasn’t expecting him to do that.”

“Yeah, I don’t think he was either,” Bobby drawled sarcastically, and Mary elbowed him in the side. 

“Maybe you should go talk to your brother, Sam,” Mary urged, and Sam exhaled heavily. He was tired of being the emotionally mature one around here, especially being the youngest. Wait. Was his mom younger than him now? He sighed, and pushed himself up from the table, looking forlornly at the egg-white omelet Dean had made him. It was going to get cold and turn to rubber when he had to reheat it.

Sam followed where the sound of Dean’s quick footsteps had led, entering the garage to find him leaning over the front of the Impala, hood open. He didn’t have any tools that Sam could see, so it was just a distraction. It was silent for a heavy moment.

“That backfired on ya, huh?” Sam asked. When in doubt, annoying younger brother was always the right tack. Dean ran his hands through his hair, leaving it sticking up in weird directions, but didn’t say anything. “You know, I meant it when I said I’d love you no matter what, this morning.” Dean tensed, but still kept silent. “Cas already told us what was supposed to happen.”

“Did he tell you how disgusted he was?”

“What? Dean, no. Why would he be?”

Dean whirled around, face screwed up in anger. “Gee, I don’t know Sammy, maybe because it’s me? I’m not sure that Cas wants ‘defiled by Dean Winchester’ on his record.”

“Dean, what are you talking about?”

Dean counted off on his fingers as he talked. “I’ve been to hell. I’ve tortured people in hell. I liked it. I’ve been a demon. I liked that. I had sex with _Crowley,_ and I liked that too.”

“Wait, _Crowley?_ That’s what you were busy doing when we couldn’t find you?”

Dean flushed and turned around, back to messing around with the inside of the Impala. His shoulders were hunched up close to his ears.

“Dude, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” Sam rushed to assure him, mind still reeling. Dean and _Crowley?_ “Was that, um, was that the first time you’d been with a guy?” Sammy asked, wincing. He was trying to be tactful, but he was sure he had missed the mark. 

Dean snorted and shook his head. “Sam, I’ve been screwing dudes since I started having sex, this is nothing new. I just never really wanted to have some sort of coming out party, okay. Besides, I figured you knew, but I guess it’s nice to know I’m not _completely_ transparent.”

“Okay, so what’s the problem then?” Dean brought a hand down heavy on the front of the Impala and Sam hurried to continue. “So you like guys. You’re way more well-adjusted to that fact than I gave you credit for. You like Cas, Cas loves you. What’s the problem?”

Dean turned around slowly. “Wait, Cas loves me?”

“Uh, duh?” Sam laughed. “God, Dean. You really think he’d do all of the things he had if he didn’t? He literally confessed his love to you on his deathbed, man.” Dean was staring at him. “Dean seriously. I know I’m supposed to be emotionally mature and sensitive about this, man, but come on. Nut up already.” Dean let out a breath and nodded once before he took off across the garage, barreling his way through the open door. Sam heard his feet skid around the corner and hollered after him, “You’re welcome!” He didn’t expect a response. 

Sam took the time to close the hood of the Impala and rest against her for a moment, reminiscing on the life he’d lived with just this car and his brother to call home, before thinking about what home meant to him now. He patted her on the hood twice before standing back up to join his family.


End file.
